What is Sidewalk Counseling?

Sidewalk counseling is "reaching out" to mothers and fathers, who are contemplating or planning abortion, to offer them information that they have a need and right to know. It is conducted by way of conversation and literature. It is done with love and out of concern for unborn children who are in danger of being deprived of their God-given right to be born into the world and for their parents, especially mothers, who are in danger of being severely harmed in numerous ways.

Sidewalk counseling is conducted on public sidewalks outside abortion facilities on days that abortions are being committed and/or days when pre-abortion evaluations or pregnancy tests are provided.

Parents may be offered information about where to go for free pregnancy tests, counseling and practical assistance, as well as fetal development, adoption, abortion procedures, risks and side effects, and post-abortion counseling and healing.

Some groups incorporate other forms of street activities with their sidewalk counseling ministries such as picketing, demonstrating, preaching, displaying signs or images, evangelizing passersby or the abortion facility's staff, guards or escorts. However, in its purest form, sidewalk counseling is about saving a child from certain death and his/her parents from certain harm, one family at a time.

In fact, the term "sidewalk counseling" was devised to counter the media characterization of a group of pro-life advocates in California as demonstrators. This group had set aside their signs and all other external evidence of demonstrating and organized their efforts to be the most effective means of reaching and speaking with people in order to offer alternatives to abortion.

See 'Serious Thoughts on Sidewalk Counseling' for an in-depth reflection on this subject. Also see 'The Origins of Sidewalk Counseling'.

For more information, commentary, resources, and ministries that you could join, visit Children Deserve Birth.